Analysis of Existentialist Theme Through The Protagonist of Paulo Coelho's 'Veronika Decides To Die'.

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Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study ………... Statement of the Problem ……….. Purpose of the Study ……….. Methods of Research ………. Organization of the Thesis ...………..

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CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF EXISTENTIALIST THEME THROUGH THE PROTAGONIST IN PAULO COELHO’S VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE …….

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CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ………... 17

BIBLIOGRAPHY ………... 21

APPENDICES:

Synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die …………...………. Biography of Paulo Coelho...……….

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ABSTRACT

Tesis ini menganalisis novel Veronika Decides to Die yang ditulis oleh Paulo Coelho. Dalam novel ini banyak ditemukan nilai - nilai tentang eksistensialisme yang sangat kental yang dialami oleh protagonis yang bernama Veronika. Tema yang ingin disampaikan oleh Coelho kepada para pembacanya dianalisis dan disimpulkan melalui teori eksistensialisme yang sangat berkaitan erat dalam tema tersebut.

Teori eksistensialisme adalah teori tentang individu yang mempunyai kebebasan dalam hidup dan mempunyai tanggung jawab terhadap kebebasan yang dimilikinya, sehingga masing – masing individu berhak menentukan keputusan yang menurutnya benar. Dan teori eksistensialisme yang sangat menonjol dalam analisa ini adalah teori eksistensialisme dari Jean – Paul Sartre yang berpendapat bahwa individu mempunyai kebebasan dalam memilih, berkomitmen dalam keputusan yang diambil dan juga menerima konsekuensi yang timbul dari keputusan yang diambil.

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hidup dalam lingkungan sosial yang tidak diharapkannya, hal ini menimbulkan dilema yang dihadapi olehnya dalam menjalani kehidupan. Dan juga nilai – nilai yang berlaku dalam lingkungan sosialnya yang mempengaruhi tokoh protagonis dalam mengambil dan membuat keputusan. Hal tersebut dapat mempengaruhi esensi dari eksistensialisme menjadi tidak berarti.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die is a story about a twenty-four-year-old woman named Veronika. She seems to have everything she can wish for, attractive physical feature, a boyfriend, a steady job as a librarian, and a loving family, but she is bored with her routine tasks, which becomes the reason of her frustration and unhappiness.

She sometimes even feels useless, unworthy and incapable. She feels like doing something in her life that can be beneficial to everyone around her but she feels powerless and helpless. So she decides to commit suicide by taking a high dose of sleeping pills to end her meaningless life. But her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete, a local mental hospital in Slovenia, where she is told she has only one more week to live.

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Against all odds, she finds that she is falling in love and wanting, if she were to live again. She learns that she desires to live once again. Much to her surprise, Veronika is still alive and knows that she is only given a shock therapy by the doctor to learn that she can live without running from reality.

Biography of Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 1947 from a middle-class family, the son of Pedro, an engineer, and Lygia, a housewife. Paulo's parents wanted him to be an engineer and when Paulo was seventeen his father had him committed to a psychiatric hospital three times. Paulo bought a typewriter and started writing, without much success. The following year, he returned to Brazil, where he worked as an executive for another record company, CBS.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.

Paulo Coelho is a writer who has been nominated by Brazilian Academy of Letters and he is “the all time best-selling Portuguese language author” (Wikipedia). Coelho has always managed to come up with extraordinary topics for his writings and his artworks have won numerous literary awards and have also appeared on best sellers list in many countries.

One of his critically acclaimed book is Veronika Decides to Die. According to critical acclaim by Denver Post Veronika Decides to Die is “Coelho’s most artful work to date… pulling the reader into discussion” (Paulocoelho). For these reasons, I choose this literary artwork for my analysis.

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Existentialism views human existence as a set of underlying theme and characteristics, such as anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death, and consciousness of existing (Wikipedia). Existentialism is based on moral individualism, where everything is subjective for it is impossible to find an ultimate justification in making choices. The lack of standard in right and wrong deed is exactly why humans are free to make their own choice.

A well-known philosophical thinker in existentialism is Jean Paul Sartre (Wikipedia), he is one of the founders of existentialism and has declared with his slogan “existence precedes essence” that means there is no predefined essence to humanity, except that which people make for themselves.

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Society has a strong relation to existentialism because the values in society always affect the decision one makes in life. Meanwhile according to existentialism, decision should be made independent of social values (Tameri). Because existentialism appreciates individual values in taking decision.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.

1. What is the theme of existentialism in Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die?

2. How is the theme presented through the protagonist?

III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY.

1. To show the theme of existentialism in Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die.

2. To show how the theme is presented through the protagonist.

IV. METHODS OF RESEARCH.

In this thesis, I begin my research by library research. First by reading Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho as the primary text. Next, to support my study in analysis I search reading materials through reference books and Internet sites and I obtain more relevant information on the theory related to the approach that will be used and applied to the analysis of the thesis. Finally, I use all the information for the analysis of the topics I choose for my thesis.

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understand the protagonist’s life through the portrayal of the protagonist. I study the protagonist’s choice, freedom, and individual existence that leads the protagonist’s into meaningless in life. And all the theory I relate to her personal life, society, and her desires in social environment.

V. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed the novel Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, I conclude that the theme is ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the life of Veronika as the protagonist of the novel in her pursuit of her happiness which can only be reached through choices of personal interest and not based on the judgement of society.

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to go against the existing value of the society. So in view of existentialism, the effect is that the individual loses his or her existence while her anxiety clouds her in finding the ultimate justification for the choice that she must make.

And here there is a pleasure that Veronika gets in her personal choice by the satisfaction of her desires through masturbating which is sinful and she breaks all the values of the society. In my opinion for Veronika’s happiness can only reach her wish and need in her life, if Veronika has managed to reach that by making that personal decision of committing suicide even if it costs her life and her sexual act which is forbidden but it makes her satisfied.

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to the will of the society, joining them with their uniformed value or persisting on their individualism and reaching a stronger and more solidified satisfaction. So in analyzing this novel, I have found that authoritative society is not positive for individual life because it will create discrimination in forms of pressure and alienation to individualism and the contradictory agenda of the individualism to society which is seen as hindrance to the development of the society in fulfilling their vision.

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controlling them in contrast to the authoritative society. In the novel, Villete turns out to be a sanctuary for these outcasts for they can utilize their given freedom of choice and act without any restrictive force that threatens them with undesirable consequences.

The writer wants to emphasize that the individual has the right of expressing his or her own acts and wills and the society cannot underestimate and judge the people based on his or her decision because the betterment of life is not based on the judgement of others. Instead, we must accept differences in many subjects in life because I think that is what makes life more colourful and attractive. So overall, the author has successfully presented an existentialism theme to the readers of this literary work about freedom of choice in life and the satisfaction to be reached by fulfilling it. And I think through the novel Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho successfully reveals the themes of ‘One must make decision on the basis of personal interest and not of social expectation so as to gain happiness in life’ through the four stages of Veronika’s life and her individual freedom of choice.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw – Hill, Inc., 1972.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Eksistentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Kesington Publishing Corp., 1987

Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy the Classics. New York: Routledge. 1998

Internet Websites

Wikipedia.com: Existentialism. 2006. 3 September 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism>.

Tameri.com: The Existential Primer. 2005. C. S. Wyatt. 3 September 2006 <http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/exist.html>.

Wikipedia.com: Paulo Coelho. 2006. 3 September 2006

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho>. Paulocoelho.com: Paulo Coelho. Sant Jordi. 2002. 3 September 2006

<http://www.paulocoelho.com.br/engl/bio.shtml>.

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